LogFAQs > #954124998

Buffalo Bills

OLB Pierre Woods (S2, 23rd)
QB Paul Thompson (S3, 10th)
HB Courtney Lewis (S3, 28th)
TE Greg Olsen (S4, 7th)
MLB Brandon Siller (S4, 28th)
OT Justin Schifano (S5, 5th)
WR Selwyn Lymon (S6, 13th)
MLB Luke Kuechly (S8, 28th)
OLB Jelani Jenkins (S9, 10th)
CB Desmond Trufant (S10, 19th)
QB Derek Carr (S10, 22nd)
DE Chandler Jones (S11, 8th)
HB Todd Gurley (S12, 4th)
OT Garrett Bolles (S13, 8th)
DE Arik Armstead (S14, 26th)

One of the reasons why I encourage people to not make true position changes is that you generally pay for rating and receive much less production and impact in return. Woods didn't have much of a career with Buffalo, but when he went to the Browns and eventually became a DE, he has actually been quite productive. I don't think he's made much of an impact, but in his 13 seasons, he has 85 career sacks, the vast majority of them coming from his time as a DE with the Browns. I would say that he has been a success story.

New management had just traded Tom Brady for five draft picks and wanted to draft his successor. Well, that turned out to be Thompson after Vince Young and Chris Leak were taken in the Top 5. His first two seasons were promising where he posted over 5400 yards and 36 TDs, but he had accuracy issues with completing roughly 53% of his passes. He didn't start for Buffalo again after that. He made his way to Denver, Columbus, and Tampa after that. He did start 11 games for the Broncos in S7 where he had a mid-70s passer rating on 60% passing, and he ultimately won a ring with the team in S9 and made another Super Bowl with the Pioneers in S13. He may not have had a Hall of Fame career, but he did win a ring, and players like Chris Leak haven't even tasted playoff victory before.

Lewis was the first of the five aforementioned picks received from Tampa. Lewis was one vote shy of becoming a Hall of Famer, even if his "worst" years were in Buffalo. He was Clinton Portis' backup and saw plenty of action, but he really turned the corner as an annual mid-season injury pick up extraordinaire. He flourished in Carolina, Miami, and Pittsburgh, maybe not in that order, before being yet another mid-season pickup by the Vikings when then-starter Julius Jones went down. Lewis led the league in yards from scrimmage since he was signed that season, including leading all HBs in receiving yards despite playing in a fraction of what the rest played. He remained on the Vikings, becoming their full-time starter, and he was a HB of the Year candidate every season he was there. He ended his career as a SB champion.

In a league where TEs don't make a huge impact and have the stats that they do, seeing the Bills select a TE so high was unexpected to say the least, especially considering that he wasn't even the top-rated TE prospect in his draft. I'm almost certain he was never a TE of the Year candidate during his...four seasons with the Bills? He seriously has played nearly twice as long in Green Bay than Buffalo? I thought it was closer than that, but man time flies. Anyway, it was more of the same initially with the Packers, whom Tangicide has informed me was the first player he acquired when he entered the league, until the late-career renaissance he's had where he has posted three-straight 500 yard seasons. Looking at his stats in Green Bay, he's really been a great fit here. Even if the yardage hasn't come with Tyrod Taylor being a run-first, run-second QB, he has YPC of 8.2 or higher in all but one season in Green Bay, including an 11.0 season, admittedly with just 27 rec that season.

Siler was selected with the final pick from the Tom Brady trade. He was Ronald McKinnon's backup to begin, but he was ultimately released (or traded, I don't remember) before his contract ran out. At some point, whether in Buffalo or later, he was converted to a DE where he has provided almost nothing in the pass-rushing department (aside from an 11 sack outburst in S10, he had three or fewer sacks in six of his other seven seasons with the Pioneers), and has wildly varried in his apparent run defense (many seasons with 35-45 tackles and several in the teens). Basically, he has coasted off of what I said about Woods. He was the starting LE for the SB champion Pioneers this past season, so that counts for something right?

An excellent backup to begin his career, Schifano was shifted to G in S7 where he saw his block and sack figures drop in his three seasons starting there for Buffalo. He was part of the package in the blockbuster trade with Washington that included five total former first rounders. He had a rough start in Washington, but has settled to become a key cog of their offense with all the turnover on the OL as he has 128 blocks against 19 sacks in the past three seasons.

Lymon was sort of a rich man's Derek Hagan, a WR with a high rating stemming more from their work as a returner and proving very little as a WR. He was sold high and included in the deal with Schifano after setting career highs at that point with 714 yards and 9 TDs (on a whopping 17.4 YPC). He battled a few injuries and never really improved upon that last season in Buffalo until he broke out in a big way last season by posting 78 rec for 1188 yards (15.2 YPC) and 6 TDs. This came at the expense of Washington's #1 WR Julio Jones (479 yards in 15 starts), but hey, Lymon did it!

Jenkins has been pretty consistent for his career. He's good for around 60-90 tackles, half a dozen sacks, and around 2 FFs+FRs a season. Maybe he hasn't lived up to his billing as a Top 10 pick, but he's been a solid contributor year in and year out.

The Bills didn't grab the top-rated MLB when they selected Kuechly, and no matter which LB spot that he's played, underwhelming seems to be the key word. He wasn't much of a tackler or playmaker during his time in Buffalo, which came to an end after S13. Nobody signed him last season.

Trufant has been an odd source for sacks, and he's been relatively good at getting a few INTs each season, but he seemed to be hit the hardest when the Bills made a significant change to a sneaky good pass D that blew up in their face. He's coming off his worst statistical season in the league, so you hope this isn't a sign of the beginning of the end for him.

Derek Carr has been such a weird QB. He's had a high YPA and thrown for many TDs, but his turnover rate was unacceptable and has a bad career completion % for the type of QB that he is. S13 was basically wiped out due to injury, and after being signed to a 1 year deal last season, he had a sub-70 passer rating on barely 50% passing and is now a free agent.

After a 7-sack debut, Chandler Jones has just 7 sacks total in the past three seasons and two total FFs+FRs in his four seasons. He appears to be merely above-average in run defense, but since his contract still runs for three more seasons and he's just 25, maybe there's still hope for him.

Trading up to select him, Todd Gurley's rookie season was lost due to injury. Since then, he's had back-to-back 1500 yard seasons on 4.5 YPC. He's a rising star in the league and the focal point of this offense.

Bolles followed in Gurley's footsteps by losing his entire rookie season to injury. Then, he missed 10 games last season. If those six games he's played are of any idication, he could become the best OL on the team as he posted 28 blocks against just one sack allowed. Who knows where he will play and how much playing time he will get, but he has shown he has the talent to be a high-end starter somewhere.

Armstead was not expected to be a 1st rounder, and well he didn't play like a 1st rounder his rookie season. He had 27 tackles and a sack.
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